I have for a long time explored the possibility of creating a wall tablet for my Futurehome Homeautomation controller. There are multiple installations out there where people have them attached on the wall with a universal mounting bracket. Many of these setups do not look very good in my mind. The next step is to use a proper wall mount which you build in to the wall, for me this was still a big step to take, so I wanted something in between. I had a Nexus 7 Android tablet laying around and I found out that it would fit nicely in to a IKEA Mossebo Picture frame, with a little bit of modification of course. A fun DIY project everyone can be able to perform in their garage :)

The width of the the IKEA picture frame was perfect, the height however was slightly off and needed to be modified.

Cut & Glue

​I started off by clamping the frame down on a piece of cardboard to avoid damaging the frame.

The edge of the frame is glued and secured with a clip. I took a drill and drilled around the clip to be able to gain access for a pryer.​

Using a small screw driver and a piece of scrap metal I had laying around I was able to pry out the small clip.

Now repeat on the other side and you will soon be ready to detach the top of the frame.

When both metal securing pins are out we will need to detach the top frame without destroying it. The frame is glued so if you run a sharp knife over the fermentation to separate the two pieces from the glue.

Now that the top of the frame is detached we are ready to cut the frame evenly on both sides to the desired height.

Measure out the cut and place an end stopper in your mitre saw. This end stopper will act as a template ensuring that you cut evenly on both sides of the frame.

Now that the frame is cut we will need to glue it back together. It is important to use glue designed for glue to get a proper fixation.

The glue will need to set for at least 12 hrs in a tempered environment. I have a frame clamp attached to the frame but you can also use tape or similar to hold the frame in position during gluing.

Because the picture frame has such a tight fit on the android tablet there is not a lot of space for the Micro USB charging cable. My plan has been to use a wireless charger to charge the unit. I had an old Samsung Qi charger which I planned to use for this. I unscrewed all the screws and removed on half of the charger to allow for increased ventilation as it will be inside the photo frame.

I then drilled a hole in the back of the frame to allow the micro usb cable to enter.

The cable was then attached to the Qi charger.

The tablet will be always on and will be set up not to go to sleep. I have however drilled a small hole at the top of the frame. This hole is right above the tablet power button. Inserting a paperclip or similar will allow me to reboot, wake or lock the device if needed. This hole is not visible when looking at the device. I have also set up tasker to recieve these commands, So i can remotely wake up, reboot etc, set screen brightness etc.

I have installed an app called Nightstand Clock from the Google Play appstore. This app uses the android daydream function so whenever the tablet is not being used it serves it's function as a stylish clock. If you want to the device can double up as a photoframe. I usually use chromecast to cast a slideshow of photos whenever we have many visitors or celebrating birthdays and such, people tend to gather around the fra to watch photos of the kids.

I choose to use Imperihome for the user interface, this is so i can decide myself which functions i would like to use and where. I can monitor status and run some basic scenes and adjust often used lights. There is also a shortcut to open the Futurehome application if there is anything i need to do in detail with my Homeautomation controller.